The New Westminster Record has once again been named one of the best community newspapers in B.C.
New Westminster’s hometown newspaper won gold in the Newspaper Excellence award category for its circulation. The award was announced Saturday at the 2018 B.C. Ma Murray Community Newspaper Awards, hosted by the B.C. and Yukon Community Newspapers Association. The Record was one of three finalists alongside the Parksville/Qualicum Beach News and the Yukon News.
The judges’ comments called the paper “consistently strong in all areas” and lauded its mix of hard news, community news and features.
“Excellent arts and sports coverage, and a strong editorial page with both local editorial and local letters to the editor,” the judges said. “Overall a great community newspaper.”
Record publisher Lara Graham accepted the award on behalf of the paper.
“We’re honoured that the Record has been recognized once again for excellence,” Graham said. “It’s a testament to the hard work of every single person who works at the Record. We couldn’t be prouder.”
Two Record reporters were also honoured with individual writing awards.
Reporter Cornelia Naylor won the Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing for her two-part piece, "The unbreakable Susie Chew." The story of the founder of New Westminster’s iconic Waffle House - and the national news story she unwittingly found herself at the heart of - ran in the Record in April 2017.
Cayley Dobie won bronze in feature writing for “Fighting the ‘low-status’ label,” a feature about New Westminster Secondary School’s trades apprenticeship programs that ran in the paper in June 2017.
